Al MacInnis | Defenseman

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Al MacInnis will have his "number 2" raised to the rafters before February 27's game by the Calgary Flames.

The honor is causing quite a stir in Calgary as most feel the Flames should retire his number like they have done for Lanny MacDonald and Mike Vernon. "I think it’s absolute bull----," an unnamed player angrily said. "To me, that’s like being half-pregnant or ‘We’re gonna get engaged but not get married …’ It’s not a commitment at all. I understand a team like Toronto (not retiring numbers) because they’re so rich in history, but you can count on one hand how many guys in this organization deserve to have their number retired here the next 20 years." For the record, MacInnis already had his number retired by the St. Louis Blues in 2006, where he finished his lengthy career. Thu, Feb 16, 2012 06:10:00 AM

The St. Louis Blues officially retired Al MacInnis's number two on Sunday.

It is the fifth number to be retired by the Blues. "During the national anthem, I saw No. 3 (Bob) Gassoff, No. 8 (Barclay) Plager, No. 11 (Brent) Sutter, and No. 24 (Bernie) Federko," MacInnis said. "It was the names of these four men, as well as (Hall of Fame announcer) Dan Kelly, that reminded me why playing for the Blues is as good as it gets in the National Hockey League." Congratulations to Al. He had a great NHL career and will soon be in the Hall of Fame. Mon, Apr 10, 2006 07:14:00 AM

The 42 year-old will join the Blues' front office rather than suiting up again this season. MacInnnis finishes his 23 year career with 340 goals and 1274 points in 1416 regular season contests, good for 3rd all-time amongst NHL defenceman. The 1999 Norris trophy winner was always one of the top fantasy defenceman available, even in his last few seasons. We wish the future hall-of-famer well in his future pursuits with the Blues. Fri, Sep 9, 2005 06:53:00 PM

TSN.ca is reporting that Al MacInnis will announce his retirement on Friday.

MacInnis played only the first 3 games of the 2003/04 season, before a detached retina forced him to miss the rest of the season. At age 42 MacInnis has had a hall of fame career, first in Calgary and then with the Blues. He scored 1274 points in his NHL career, winning the Norris Trophy in 1999 and the Conn Smythe as the most valuable player in the playoffs in 1989. Thu, Sep 8, 2005 02:47:00 PM

Player News

The St. Louis Blues officially retired Al MacInnis's number two on Sunday.

It is the fifth number to be retired by the Blues. "During the national anthem, I saw No. 3 (Bob) Gassoff, No. 8 (Barclay) Plager, No. 11 (Brent) Sutter, and No. 24 (Bernie) Federko," MacInnis said. "It was the names of these four men, as well as (Hall of Fame announcer) Dan Kelly, that reminded me why playing for the Blues is as good as it gets in the National Hockey League." Congratulations to Al. He had a great NHL career and will soon be in the Hall of Fame.

The 42 year-old will join the Blues' front office rather than suiting up again this season. MacInnnis finishes his 23 year career with 340 goals and 1274 points in 1416 regular season contests, good for 3rd all-time amongst NHL defenceman. The 1999 Norris trophy winner was always one of the top fantasy defenceman available, even in his last few seasons. We wish the future hall-of-famer well in his future pursuits with the Blues.

TSN.ca is reporting that Al MacInnis will announce his retirement on Friday.

MacInnis played only the first 3 games of the 2003/04 season, before a detached retina forced him to miss the rest of the season. At age 42 MacInnis has had a hall of fame career, first in Calgary and then with the Blues. He scored 1274 points in his NHL career, winning the Norris Trophy in 1999 and the Conn Smythe as the most valuable player in the playoffs in 1989.

Despite meeting with Blues' GM Larry Pleau at length on Monday, Al MacInnis has yet to announce his intentions for the 2005-06 season.

The 42-year-old MacInnis has not played since October 2003, when he had surgery on both eyes to repair a detached retina and overall blurry vision. The unrestricted free agent defenseman has indicated that he would only play for the Blues if he did return, but whether a comeback is something that is still in his mind remains unknown. No timetable for a decision has been set by either the Blues or MacInnis. If MacInnis does decide to play again, he will be a fantasy asset, provided he has not lost too much from his all-star form.

While it seems likely that MacInnis will hang up the skates, head coach Mike Kitchen said that MacInnis is ''still the captain''. After his serious eye injury it seems doubtful that the aging defenseman would take any risks with his eye.

Al MacInnis told the St.Louis Post Dispatch that he did not expect to play professional hockey again.

MacInnis, who sustained a serious eye injury two years ago, has regained a good portion of his sight. However, at 42, the Blues' defenseman indicated that he did not believe he could return to play at a high level and that he would almost certainly retire.

Al MacInnis has not yet decided if he will retire from competitive hockey.

He is skating on his own in St.Louis, but has still not recovered full peripheral vision in his left eye following a serious injury over a year ago. MacInnis is an unrestricted free agent, so if he chose to return to action, he would be available to the highest bidder.

He still can't see at all in his left eye as his lens was removed during surgery, however MacInnis will be fitted with a special contact lens shortly that will allow him some sight. The 40-year-old MacInnis is still many months away from deciding if he wants to continue his playing career.

Although he may return at some point later this season, the Blues are going forward as if he will miss the entire season. When the surgeons operated on his left eye, they also found problems with his right eye that were corrected yesterday. The recovery time is around 16-20 weeks, so if MacInnis does return it will be late in the season. We would drop MacInnis if you own him and look elsewhere to replace his offence from your blueline.

TSN is reporting that Al MacInnis could be out of the Blues' lineup for a considerable length of time due to a partially detached retina in one of his eyes.

It is too early to say how serious an injury this is, however if any kind of surgery is required to correct the problem, MacInnis would be lost to the Blues for a minimum of 1-2 months. It might even be career threatening. Stay tuned.

Al MacInnis did in fact return to action last night, but was not really a factor in the Blues' 4-1 loss to the Canucks.

The Blues are now set to go golfing, and MacInnis will have plenty of time to properly recover from a severe shoulder separation. In a gutsy, but somewhat risky effort, MacInnis played about 15 minutes, was minus 1, and took only one shot on goal.

Al MacInnis will be out of action for 2-4 weeks with a separated right shoulder, reports the St.Louis Post Dispatch.

Well it is nice to see a team actually revealing some injury information during the playoffs. This is a big blow to the Blues' playoff chances, although Chris Pronger, Barret Jackman and Alexander Khavanov played very well last night in covering for the loss of MacInnis.

Depth Charts

David Backes tallied his 20th goal of the season Tuesday night, but it wasn't to help the Blurs withstand a 5-2 loss to Montreal.

Backes has now reached the 20-goal mark five times in his career and at just 30 years of age, could certainly repeat the feat a few more times. T.J. Oshie also registered his 17th marker of the campaign in the loss.

Paul Stastny contributed to both Blues goals in their 2-1 win over the Oilers on Saturday night.

Stastny assisted on Dmitrij Jaskin’s first-period goal and scored his own in the third period. His first season in St. Louis has not exactly gone as planned, with 12 goals and 36 points this season. The goal was his first since Feb. 12, a span of six without one. Patrik Berglund and Ian Cole got the other helpers.

The St. Louis Blues have acquired Olli Jokinen from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Joakim Lindstrom and a conditional sixth-round pick

The pick can improve to a fourth rounder if the Blues reach the Stanley Cup Final and he participates in it. Jokinen has three goals and seven points in 54 games in 2014-15. He was acquired by Toronto as part of the Cody Franson trade.

"This allows us to have the two guys that play there be hunters and then we have a guy that's backing up the hunting and playing that 'in-between-the-dots' role that we think we need from that position," said Hitchcock. Goc is slated to play between Ryan Reaves and Steve Ott after he was acquired from Pittsburgh in exchange for Maxim Lapierre.

Alexander Steen had three assists in Friday's 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins.

All three of Steen's assists came in the second period as he helped set up goals by Alex Pietrangelo, T.J. Oshie and Vladimir Tarasenko. The 30-year-old has had two three-point efforts in his last four games. Steen has 19 goals and 51 points in 56 games this season. He is on pace to hit the 70-point mark for the first time in his NHL career.

Jaden Schwartz scored a goal in St. Louis' 2-1 shootout win over Florida.

Schwartz opened the scoring at the 11:48 mark of the second period and that held up until Florida tied the game with under two minutes remaining. The 22-year-old now has 20 goals and 44 points in 49 games this season. He has posted back-to-back 20-goal seasons for the first time in his career. Jori Lehtera and Vladimir Tarasenko assisted on the goal and they each added a goal in the shootout to give St. Louis the win.

"Mom (Erica) and baby are doing great," said Ott, who missed Saturday's game to be with his family. "I've got to go pick them up after this and bring them home." Ott has nine points, 57 penalty minutes and 128 hits in 57 games.

The St. Louis Blues now have seven players with 10 goals or more this season.

Vladimir Tarasenko leads the team in that category with 31 but David Backes (20), Jaden Schwartz (20), Alexander Steen (19), T.J. Oshie (17), Paul Stastny (11) and Dmitrij Jaskin (10) have all hit double-digit goal totals this year. The Blues have a very balanced attack which they hope will be useful come playoff time.

Oshie assisted on Alex Pietrangelo's first period goal and he also set up third period goals by Dmitrij Jaskin and David Backes. The Blues were down 5-2 in the final frame but they were able to fight back and force overtime. Oshie rang a shot off the crossbar in the extra frame and he missed on his shootout attempt. The 28-year-old has 17 goals and 44 points in 55 games this season.

The 21-year-old played a season-high 17:07 in the game. Jaskin opened the scoring at the 12:11 mark of the first period. The young Russian now has 10 goals, 14 points and a plus-9 rating in 35 games in 2014-15. He finished the night with four shots, four hits and a plus-1 rating. He was named the game's second star.

Chris Porter, Chris Butler, and Joakim Lindstrom will be scratched on Saturday night against the Edmonton Oilers.

There isn't a whole lot of fantasy value here as Porter has just 15 games to his credit this season, and one in 2015. Lindstrom has played just six of his 34 games in the new year, he also has six points. While Butler has six points himself with 15 PIMs, and 34 blocks through 24 games this season.

Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said that there's no timetable for Shattenkirk's return, although a previous report suggested that he might be back in early April. He has eight goals and 40 points in 49 contests in 2014-15.

Jay Bouwmeester will play in his 900th career game on Saturday night against the Edmonton Oilers.

Through his first 899 games, Bouwmeester has tallied 78 goals and 354 points while averaging 25:01 of ice time. He also owns three straight double-digit goal seasons and three seasons of over 40 points. This season however, the 31 year old's offensive production has slipped. He has just two goals and 10 points while averaging over 23 minutes a night.

The Arizona Coyotes have retained half of Zbynek Michalek's remaining salary and cap hit in their trade with St. Louis.

Michalek is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, so it's not a big financial undertaking for Arizona, but it will help St. Louis stay under the ceiling. The Coyotes also sent a conditional third-round pick to St. Louis and received prospect Maxim Letunov.

Petteri Lindbohm scored his first NHL goal in Friday's 5-1 win over Boston.

It wasn't pretty but they all count. Lindbohm threw a puck on net that bounced off Malcolm Subban's glove and in. The 21-year-old was St. Louis' sixth round pick in 2012 and he is getting his first taste of NHL action in 2014-15. He has two points and a minus-1 rating in 10 games with St. Louis this season.

Brian Elliot stopped five of six shots in a brief relief appearance in Sunday's 6-5 shootout loss to Vancouver.

Elliot entered the game at the start of the third period with the Blues trailing 4-2. Elliot then allowed an early third period goal to Nick Bonino and he decided to pull himself from the game. Elliot came back out of the tunnel a little later on and had some words with coach Ken Hitchcock before disappearing back into the locker room. The Blues eventually scored three unanswered goals in the game to force overtime, but they fell in the shootout. This is a weird situation between the coach and his goaltender. It'll be interesting to see how the team chooses to explain this.

Allen was pulled after allowing four goals through two periods. In a strange turn of events, Brian Elliot pulled himself after allowing an early third period goal to Nick Bonino. With Allen back in goal, the Blues scored three unanswered goals to force overtime. Unfortunately for St. Louis, their goaltender was unable to come up with a single save in the shootout. Allen's record falls to 17-6-3 this season and he has a 2.55 goals-against-average and a .903 save percentage.